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HOME » How To Take a Sharper Cat Photo

How To Take a Sharper Cat Photo

16/10/2019 by Marjorie Dawson 16 Comments

If you are like me you absolutely love taking pictures of cat fur and cat coat colours. But, do you have issues when you try to take a sharper cat photo? I know I do. If you struggle or want to improve, this post is for you.

Furtography

I have been trying to improve my fur photograph quality by taking a sharper cat picture for a while now and I am learning that just getting out into the garden, a park or a city street and practising gives you confidence and helps you learn.

Using your camera helps you remember settings for modes like Aperture Priority*, and Shutter Priority**. If you take your settings one at a time and do what I did here – push each one as far as you can. You will learn what each mode and setting can do, as well as what doesn’t work. which is just as important.

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Let‘s Take a Look at My Fur Settings

Just a quick reminder.

As your skills grow, you will want to keep improving for your own satisfaction and personal growth as a photographer, even if you consider yourself an amateur, not a professional.

When you work to take a sharper cat photo and get sharp fur much more often ithis is great for rescue pictures, boosts your skills for sponsored blog posts and even lets you think about submitting to print magazines.

Take a Sharper Cat Photo

It has taken me time to work up confidence and find settings that are starting to work and I want to share them for you. Especially if you aspire to good sharp fur on your pets.

Taking A Sharper Cat Photo

Remember, you lose nothing by experimenting, and you can delete pictures that don’t work. This is the big advantage of a modern digital-based SLR. Download the pictures – delete your disasters after you have taken a good look and learned what worked and what did not.

For these pictures I pushed everything further than I had before.I experimented with close-ups of Dot Kitten our tabby cat to see what would happen.

Cat close-ups are becoming a favourite subject of mine and exploring new areas with a favourite shooting concept means it doesn’t seem horribly unfriendly. [I posted about the amazing effects you can get with cat photo closeups here.]

Take a Sharper Cat Photo of Dot Kitten with high settings

Dot was in a relaxed mood and I got down to cat level so she was not edgy about the camera. I began to explore the shutter speed and the F-stop with a few adjustments to the light through the ISO button. These may not be standard photography settings but they allowed me to discover how sharp I can get.

Here is what I ended up with:

  • ISO 3200
  • F-stop at F22
  • Shutter speed 1/400

When you explore, never be afraid to make mistakes it is going to happen. You never know what your pictures may teach you!

I hope you will join Bionic Basil, Barking from the Bayou and ourselves and let me know how you think Dot looks in per pictures.

Photography Definitions

  • Aperture Priority* Wikipedia “Aperture priority, often abbreviated A or Av (for aperture value) on a camera mode dial, is a setting on some cameras that allows the user to set a specific aperture value (f-number) while the camera selects a shutter speed to match it that will result in proper exposure”
  • Shutter Priority** Wikipedia. “Shutter priority (usually denoted as S on the mode dial), also called time value (abbreviated as Tv), refers to a setting on some cameras that allows the user to choose a specific shutter speed while the camera adjusts the aperture to ensure correct exposure.”
  • Definition of F5.6 “Aperture refers to the lens diaphragm. In ‘auto’ mode it is similar to the human eye and narrows when there is a lot of light or widens when there is little light. Aperture is measured in f-stops (for example, f1.4, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22 and so on).” Australian Geographic
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Filed Under: Camera Skills Tagged With: Pet Parade 322

Meet Marjorie, Writer and Photographer

Portrait by a window with teddy bears Taken with a smartphone.Marjorie is a cat lover, photographer and smartphone moviemaker who loves sharing her knowledge with learners.

Marjorie is a Cat Writers’ Association Professional member, CWA Muse® Medallion and Certificate Winner, and winner of the CWA Kuykendall Image Award for her photography.

 

Comments

  1. Timmy Tomcat says

    08/11/2019 at 6:48 am

    Thanks so much for these tips. Now that we have our new camera we are having a great time playing with it. We should have gotten this years ago but were worried about poor battery life. That is a thing of the past
    Purrs

    Reply
    • Marjorie Dawson says

      08/11/2019 at 7:41 am

      This is good to know Timmy. There is so much fun you can have with your camera. Enjoy!

      Reply
  2. Sweet Purrfections says

    22/10/2019 at 1:47 pm

    I’m determined I’m going to learn how to use my Nikon camera so I can get better photos of the girls!

    Reply
  3. Sandy Kubillus says

    22/10/2019 at 12:53 pm

    Very clear photos! One of these days I’ll go back to using an SLR (it’s been many decades). Now I just use my cell phone and don’t have many options. I always enjoy reading about how to take better photos from you.

    Reply
  4. Jana Rade says

    22/10/2019 at 12:26 pm

    My beef with photos is usually that too much detail makes it in. More often than not I end up softening almost all of them.

    Reply
  5. Emilia says

    22/10/2019 at 5:02 am

    Dot is so cute. Your fur-tography is great. I am learning a lot from your tips even though I’m still pretty rubbish at it. I wanted to get great shot at Plush’s visit to the World Show but I didn’t really get anything good I just kind of ran around and snapped lol.

    Reply
  6. Ruth Epstein says

    19/10/2019 at 4:09 pm

    Thanks for the blog hop as always. I learned some things yesterday at the Instagram workshop about photography and one thing that stood out and where I am making mistakes is I need to get a portable LED light which will make all the difference so slowly am getting their BUT your tips are always encouraging and your photography amazing

    Reply
    • Marjorie Dawson says

      20/10/2019 at 12:13 pm

      There are some excellent lights on Amazon for a modest price!

      Reply
  7. Michelle & The Paw Pack says

    19/10/2019 at 1:22 pm

    Dot is so cute! I love pictures where you can really see their whiskers and fur. I luck out and get good photos of my boys once in awhile haha. I’ll have to play around with my camera settings more to see if I can get better at taking closeups.

    Reply
  8. meowmeowmans says

    17/10/2019 at 3:43 pm

    Dot is beautiful! Thank you for the tips, as always!

    Reply
  9. Melissa K. Clinton says

    17/10/2019 at 12:53 pm

    I love fur and whisker photography. Great lesson and I signed my name for Alley Cats.

    Reply
  10. Meezer'sMews&TerrieristicalWoofs says

    17/10/2019 at 5:49 am

    Exquisitely clear and I can see all the furs:)

    Dot is so pretty!

    Reply
  11. Brian Frum says

    17/10/2019 at 12:46 am

    Love all of those and your tips are always the best!

    Reply
  12. Athena and Marie says

    16/10/2019 at 11:45 pm

    Beautiful photos!

    Reply
  13. mommakatandherbearcat says

    16/10/2019 at 10:37 pm

    Sharpness is one of my issues. And I haven’t figured out how to use the photo editor to make it better!

    Reply
  14. Ellen Pilch says

    16/10/2019 at 2:28 pm

    Great photos of Dot. She is a beauty. XO

    Reply

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